Canada Post warns of delays as it’s flooded with packages

Social distancing in its centres adds to problem

• The busy season is back for Canada Post, who delivered more packages last Monday than during most days leading up to the winter holidays. But that’s a double- edged sword, as the flood of parcels is causing delivery delays because of social distancing measures.

“People should expect delays. It may just be one day or two, but it may be several more days depending on where the package is coming from as it’s working its way through our facilities,” Canada Post spokesperson Jon Hamilton warned in an interview.

The reasons behind the new delays are twofold.

First of all, the Crown corporation is dealing with an “unprecedented” volume of parcels for the month of April.

“We’ ve seen a growth increase over the past few weeks, and we’re now well over 30 per cent over the volume we would normally deliver. On Monday this week, we delivered 1.8 million parcels. Those are the levels we’d see in the run-up to Christmas, which is absolutely the busiest time of the year,” Hamilton explained.

He said the Crown corporation delivers 1.7 million parcels on the average pre- Christmas Day. On the busiest day in Canada Post history, employees delivered a whopping 2.2 million parcels.

“Christmas is the time of year we plan for starting in January,” he continued, whereas there was little to no time to prepare for the rush this time around.

Secondly, though the recent massive uptick in package deliveries may seem like good news for the Crown corporation — and it is in many regards — it also arrives at a time when it is operating at a reduced capacity.

That’s because of social distancing measures to fight the spread of COVID-19.

Thus, there are fewer people who can work simultaneously in close quarters at nearly every step of the delivery process, from the arrival of shipments in Canada to the delivery at a doorstep.

“First, there’s physical distancing at the docks. Also, our processing plants aren’ t designed to keep people two metres apart. So a line that maybe had tw o people working to move faster, now only has one person at certain stops. And then when you’re loading material into vehicles, you can’t have more than one person in that confined space,” Hamilton said.

Canada Post has also noticed an increase in other risks to its postal workers, such as an unusually high number of incidents involving animals during deliveries. The main culprits are obviously dogs, which are left outside longer or taken for walks more frequently as Canadians are mostly staying home.

“It’s certainly been challenging, it is a time of concern for anybody. So far so good, but at the same time, it’s taking longer to process and deliver, so we want to be up front with Canadians and let them know that it’s going to take longer to get their items because we’re putting safety first,” said Hamilton.

Those are the levels we’d see in the run-up to Christmas.